Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 21
21
Accepted
Reported programme costs may not capture full expenditure across the wider justice system.
Recommendation
Despite our earlier concerns, the National Audit Office found that the programme costs still may not capture the full costs of reforming the courts and tribunals. This is partly because when reporting the costs of the programme, HMCTS does not include all of the costs associated with its 2021 business case. For example, of the Crown Prosecution Service will fund its own costs to develop interfaces with common platform. As a result, these costs will not show on reform programme expenditure, even though the original budget was expected to cover the full costs of a shared platform.41 We asked HMCTS whether it thought it was important to keep an eye on the costs to the criminal justice system as a whole as there was still a cost to the taxpayer, even if it was not one it was paying for. HMCTS responded that it thought that this was a fair point for it to look at this.42
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation and commits to responding by December 2023, outlining how it will assess the full cost of the programme, though some elements may rely on estimates.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Target implementation date: December 2023 4.2 The government will respond to the Committee by the six-month deadline, setting out how it will assess the full cost of the programme, considering the proposed inclusions where they are within the scope of the programme. 4.3 In some cases it will be necessary to rely on estimates rather than full costings as full information may not be available.